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M L Steer

Publications and source records attributed to M L Steer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

CCK-JMV-180, an analog of cholecystokinin, releases intracellular calcium from an inositol trisphosphate-independent pool in rat pancreatic acini.

In pancreatic acinar cells cholecystokinin and its analogs, caerulein and CCK-JMV-180, stimulate an increase in intracellular free [Ca2+] by releasing Ca2+ from non-mitochondrial intracellular pools. It is generally believed that the caerulein-induced release of Ca2+ is mediated by phospholipase C-catalyzed production of 1,4,5-inositol triphosphate (IP3). In this study we have investigated the source and mechanism of Ca2+ release induced by CCK-JMV-180 using streptolysin O-permeabilized pancreatic acinar cells. Caerulein-stimulated release of Ca2+ was completely blocked by either neomycin, an inhibitor of phospholipase C, or by heparin, an IP3 receptor antagonist. These observations are compatible with the conclusion that caerulein releases Ca2+ from an IP3-sensitive pool. In contrast to caerulein, however, CCK-JMV-180-stimulated release of Ca2+ was not blocked by either neomycin or by heparin, indicating that CCK-JMV-180 releases Ca2+ by mechanisms which do not involve the generation or action of IP3. CCK-JMV-180 stimulated the release of Ca2+ even after the IP3-sensitive pool had been completely emptied by prior exposure to a supramaximally stimulating concentration of IP3 (40 microM). Prestimulation of permeabilized acini with 20 mM caffeine did not abolish the CCK-JMV-180-induced Ca2+ release. These results indicate that CCK-JMV-180 stimulates release of Ca2+ from a hitherto uncharacterized intracellular storage pool which is insensitive to either IP3 or caffeine.

Amylases↗
PubMed1992

How and where does acute pancreatitis begin?

Circumstantial evidence suggests that gallstone-induced pancreatitis is triggered by obstruction of the pancreatic duct. In this report I will review the results of studies conducted during the last decade that have employed the diet-induced, secretagogue-induced, and duct obstruction-induced models of experimental pancreatitis to investigate the early events that lead to the development of acute pancreatitis. In each of these models, digestive enzyme zymogens and the lysosomal hydrolase cathepsin B were found to become colocalized. These observations have led to the hypothesis that intra-acinar cell activation of digestive enzyme zymogens by lysosomal hydrolases may be an important critical event in the development of acute pancreatitis. Recent morphologic studies evaluating the initial 24 hours after ligation of the opossum pancreatic duct indicate that the earliest lesions in this model of hemorrhagic pancreatitis occur in acinar cells.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1992

Acute necrotizing pancreatitis in the opossum: earliest morphological changes involve acinar cells.

Acute pancreatitis was induced by ligating the opossum common biliopancreatic duct immediately proximal to its entry into the duodenum, and macroscopic as well as microscopic changes were evaluated during the subsequent 24 hours. Transient pancreatic edema and progressive hyperamylasemia were noted within 6 hours of pancreatic and bile duct ligation. Light microscopic evidence of pancreatic injury including acinar cell necrosis, hemorrhage, fat necrosis, and inflammatory cell infiltration was noted within 12 hours of duct obstruction. Electron microscopic changes included massive dilatation of the rough endoplasmic reticulum and disruption of the apical plasmalemma of acinar cells during the initial 3 hours. These observations indicate that pancreatic and bile duct ligation in the opossum results in the rapid (less than 24 hours) appearance of changes consistent with acute hemorrhagic and necrotizing pancreatitis and that the initial lesion in this model of experimental pancreatitis involves acinar cells.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1992

Pancreatic secretion of lysosomal enzymes stimulated by intraduodenal instillation of a liquid meal in rabbits.

1. Studies have been performed to determine the effect of intraduodenal food on pancreatic secretion of lysosomal enzymes. 2. Intraduodenal instillation of a liquid meal (3 g/kg body weight; 15.3% protein, 19.7% fat, 59.7% carbohydrate) caused significant increases in pancreatic juice volume and pancreatic secretion of amylase and protein compared with basal values for 2h after instillation in anaesthetized rabbits. 3. Intraduodenal instillation of a liquid meal also caused significant increases in pancreatic secretion of three lysosomal enzymes (cathepsin B, N-beta-acetyl-galactosaminidase and N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase) compared with basal values for 2h after instillation. 4. In addition, there were significant correlations between cathepsin B secretion and amylase secretion (r = 0.7764, P < 0.001) and between cathepsin B secretion and protein secretion (r = 0.6216, P < 0.001), both in basal conditions and in response to the liquid meal. 5. These results are evidence for the localization of lysosomal enzymes in the secretory granules-zymogen granules in normal acinar cells, and also indicate that the pancreatic secretion of lysosomal enzymes is gut-hormone-regulated.

Acetylglucosaminidase↗
PubMed1992

Effects of chloroquine and methylamine on lysosomal enzyme secretion by rat pancreas.

In vivo pancreatic secretion of the lysosomal hydrolase cathepsin B was found to be increased by infusion of the secretagogue caerulein. The basal as well as caerulein-stimulated in vivo rate of cathepsin B was further increased by infusion of either chloroquine or methylamine while neither the basal nor the secretagogue-stimulated rates of amylase secretion were altered by the lysosomotropic agents. These observations indicate that neutralization of the acidic prelysosomal compartment by administration of lysosomotropic agents results in lysosomal enzyme entry, by default, into the regulated secretory pathway. In vitro stimulation of pancreatic acini with caerulein was also found to stimulate cathepsin B secretion. That in vitro rate of cathepsin B secretion stimulated by caerulein was not increased in acini prepared from animals infused with caerulein, chloroquine, or methylamine, but the in vitro rate of cathepsin B secretion stimulated by caerulein was increased in acini prepared from animals infused with caerulein plus either chloroquine or methylamine. Under these conditions, redistribution of cathepsin B from the lysosome-enriched to the zymogen granule-enriched subcellular fraction was noted, and lysosomal enzyme-containing organelles became increasingly fragile. These observations indicate that in vivo secretagogue stimulation increases the degree of diversion of lysosomal hydrolases into the regulated secretory compartment when the prelysosomal compartment has been neutralized with lysosomotropic agents.

Amylases↗
PubMed1992

In vivo and in vitro effects of the azidothymidine analog dideoxyinosine on the exocrine pancreas of the rat.

Phase I clinical trials of the purine analog 2',3'-dideoxyinosine (ddl) revealed that 10% of the patients developed pancreatitis, yet there was no clear relationship between increasing doses of ddl and the development of pancreatitis. To test the effects of chronic ddl administration on the structure and function of the rat pancreas, male Wistar rats were given ddl at 100 mg/kg/day i.p. for 35 days or 1400 mg/kg/day for 30 days, in two divided doses. Serum amylase levels, pancreatic tissue water content (edema) and pancreatic morphology by light and electron microscopic examination of pancreata from ddl-treated rats were similar to those of rats receiving saline injections only (controls). 2',3'-Dideoxyinosine administration did not alter the subcellular distribution of the lysosomal enzyme cathepsin B, whose redistribution to a more dense zymogen granule-enriched subcellular fraction is an early indicator of acute pancreatitis. Dispersed pancreatic acini from rats receiving ddl (100 mg/kg/day for 30 days) were incubated in vitro for 15 min with either caerulein or carbamylcholine as secretory stimuli. There was no detectable difference in the stimulatable amylase secretion from ddl-treated animals compared to the control group. Based on these findings, we conclude that ddl has no direct toxic effect on the rat pancreas. 2',3'-Dideoxyinosine may be contributing to pancreatitis in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients by potentiating other pancreatotoxic agents or by its action on a pancreas that is already altered by the human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Amylases↗
PubMed1991

The role of oxygen-derived free radicals in two models of experimental acute pancreatitis: effects of catalase, superoxide dismutase, dimethylsulfoxide, and allopurinol.

The role of oxygen-derived free radicals was evaluated in two models of experimental acute pancreatitis by testing the effects of agents which either reduce oxygen-derived free radical generation or scavenge those free radicals. Those agents (catalase, superoxide dismutase, polyethylene glycol-superoxide dismutase, dimethylsulfoxide, and allopurinol) were evaluated using the choline-deficient ethionine-supplemented diet-induced model of acute hemorrhagic pancreatic necrosis and the supramaximal caerulein stimulation model of acute interstitial edematous pancreatitis. In both models, the only effect associated with administration of the test agents was a reduction in the degree of pancreatic edema. These results suggest that oxygen-derived free radicals may play an important role in the development of pancreatic edema during pancreatitis but that those free radicals do not play an important role in the development of acinar cell injury.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1991

Effects of short-term pancreatic duct obstruction in rats.

The short-term effects of rat pancreatic duct obstruction were evaluated and compared with those recently reported to follow obstruction of the rabbit pancreatic duct. In both species pancreatic edema and hyperamylasemia are noted, and the lysosomal hydrolase cathepsin B is redistributed from the lysosome-enriched to the zymogen granule-enriched subcellular fraction. Theoretically, this redistribution phenomenon might lead to digestive enzyme activation because cathepsin B is known to be capable of activating trypsinogen. The hyperamylasemia and pancreatic edema (but not the cathepsin B redistribution) that follow rat pancreatic duct obstruction were increased by infusion of a submaximally stimulating dose of the cholecystokinin analogue cerulein. Administration of the cholecystokinin-receptor antagonist L-364,718 reduced the hyperamylasemia but did not alter the pancreatic edema or cathepsin B redistribution. These observations indicate that cholecystokinin may modulate some but not all of the effects of duct obstruction. Secretin administration increased the degree of pancreatic edema and had no demonstrable protective effect. The rat duct-obstruction model described in this report may prove particularly useful in future studies designed to clarify the early events underlying the development of acute pancreatitis.

Amylases↗
PubMed1991

Apical secretion of lysosomal enzymes in rabbit pancreas occurs via a secretagogue regulated pathway and is increased after pancreatic duct obstruction.

Lysosomal hydrolases such as cathepsin B are apically secreted from rabbit pancreatic acinar cells via a regulated as opposed to a constitutive pathway. Intravenous infusion of the cholecystokinin analogue caerulein results in highly correlated apical secretion of digestive and lysosomal enzymes, suggesting that they are discharged from the same presecretory compartment (zymogen granules). Lysosomal enzymes appear to enter that compartment as a result of missorting. After 7 h of duct obstruction is relieved, caerulein-stimulated apical secretion of cathepsin B and amylase is increased, but the ratio of cathepsin B to amylase secretion is not different than that following caerulein stimulation of animals never obstructed. These findings indicate that duct obstruction causes an increased amount of both lysosomal and digestive enzymes to accumulate within the secretagogue releasable compartment but that duct obstruction does not increase the degree of lysosomal enzyme missorting into that compartment. Pancreatic duct obstruction causes lysosomal hydrolases to become colocalized with digestive enzymes in organelles that, in size and distribution, resemble zymogen granules but that are not subject to secretion in response to secretagogue stimulation. These organelles may be of importance in the development of pancreatitis.

Amylases↗
PubMed1991

A plasma protease which is expressed during supramaximal stimulation causes in vitro subcellular redistribution of lysosomal enzymes in rat exocrine pancreas.

The complex events by which digestive enzyme zymogens and lysosomal hydrolases are segregated from each other and differentially transported to their respective membrane-bound intracellular organelles in the pancreas have been noted to be disturbed during the early stages of several models of experimental pancreatitis. As a result, lysosomal hydrolases such as cathepsin B are redistributed to the subcellular zymogen granule-rich fraction and lysosomal hydrolases as well as digestive enzyme zymogens are colocalized within large cytoplasmic vacuoles. The current study was designed to create an in vitro system that would reproduce this redistribution phenomenon. Our results indicate that cathepsin B redistribution occurs when rat pancreatic fragments are incubated with a supramaximally stimulating concentration of the cholecystokinin analogue caerulein along with plasma from an animal subjected to in vivo supramaximal caerulein stimulation. Neither the plasma nor a supramaximally stimulating concentration of caerulein, alone, is sufficient to induce in vitro cathepsin B redistribution. The ability of the plasma to induce in vitro cathepsin redistribution is dependent upon its content of a 10,000-30,000-D protein and is lost by exposure to protease inhibitors. In vitro cathepsin B redistribution also occurs when rat pancreatic fragments are incubated with plasma obtained from opossums with hemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis caused by bile/pancreatic duct ligation.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Effects of a choline-deficient ethionine-supplemented diet on phospholipase C activity in mouse pancreatic acinar cell membranes and in electropermeabilized mouse pancreatic acini.

The nonhydrolyzable guanyl nucleotide GTP gamma S stimulated phosphoinositidase C activity in two preparations obtained from mouse pancreatic acini labeled with myo[2-3H]inositol: a cell-free membrane fraction and intact electropermeabilized acini. This action was dose-dependent, was shared by other nonhydrolyzable guanyl nucleotides such as GMP-phencyclidine hydrochloride and GMP-PMP, as well as by fluoride, and was calcium-independent. Contrarily, no effect was observed even at doses of GTP gamma S as high as 10 microM when the same protocol was repeated on identical acinar preparations from mice fed a choline-deficient, ethionine-supplemented diet. This regimen is known to uncouple secretagogue-receptor occupancy from inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate generation in pancreatic acinar cells and lead to necrotizing hemorrhagic pancreatitis. These data lead us to conclude that the ethionine-induced inactivation of guanyl nucleotide-dependent pancreatic phosphoinositidase C in pancreatic acinar cells is not the result of either a decrease in GTP level or a decrease in GTP availability. These findings further confirm previous work from this laboratory, which has shown that the biochemical lesion induced by this diet occurs after the agonist-receptor binding step. The diet-induced lesion could be either at the level of the G-protein that couples the enzyme with the receptor or at the level of the phospholipase itself.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Inositol trisphosphate independent increase of intracellular free calcium and amylase secretion in pancreatic acini.

It is generally believed that the activation of various cell surface receptors results in the phospholipase C-catalyzed production of inositol trisphosphate which, in turn, increases the intracellular concentration of free Ca2+ by stimulating its release from nonmitochondrial sources. We have investigated both the production of inositol trisphosphate and changes in intracellular Ca2+ concentration in rat pancreatic acini in response to caerulein and CCK-JMV-180, two analogs of cholecystokinin. Both of these analogs cause comparable increases in the rate of amylase secretion and in intracellular Ca2+ concentration but their effects on inositol phosphate generation are dramatically different; caerulein stimulates significant production of inositol phosphates within 1 min of its addition, whereas no detectable levels of inositol phosphates were generated within the same time after addition of CCK-JMV-180. These results suggest that the CCK-JMV-180 stimulated release of intracellular Ca2+ is not mediated by inositol trisphosphate but some other as yet unidentified messenger.

Amylases↗
PubMed1989

Experimental pancreatitis is mediated by low-affinity cholecystokinin receptors that inhibit digestive enzyme secretion.

Rats infused with a supramaximally stimulating dose of the cholecystokinin (CCK) analog caerulein develop acute edematous pancreatitis. Using CCK-JMV-180, a recently developed CCK analog that acts as an agonist at high-affinity CCK receptors but antagonizes the effect of CCK at low-affinity receptors, we have determined that caerulein induces pancreatitis by interacting with low-affinity CCK receptors. Those low-affinity receptors mediate CCK-induced inhibition of digestive enzyme secretion from the pancreas. Our observations, therefore, suggest that this form of experimental pancreatitis results from the inhibition of pancreatic digestive enzyme secretion.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1989

Esterase inhibitors prevent lysosomal enzyme redistribution in two noninvasive models of experimental pancreatitis.

Earlier studies have indicated that lysosomal enzymes such as cathepsin B become redistributed within pancreatic acinar cells during the early stages of both diet- and secretagogue-induced acute pancreatitis. As a result, cathepsin B and digestive zymogens became colocalized within large cytoplasmic vacuoles. As cathepsin B can activate trypsinogen, this colocalization could result in intracellular digestive enzyme activation. The present study investigates the protective effects of gabexate mesilate (FOY) and camostate (FOY 305) on both of these noninvasive models of experimental pancreatitis. These esterase inhibitors prevented the hyperamylasemia, pancreatic edema, and acinar cell vacuolization that characterize secretagogue-induced pancreatitis and the hyperamylasemia and mortality that characterize diet-induced pancreatitis. In addition, FOY and FOY 305 were found to significantly decrease the subcellular redistribution of cathepsin B that occurs in both models. These findings indicate that enzyme activity sensitive to inhibition by FOY and FOY 305 may be critical to the redistribution phenomenon that characterizes both of these models of pancreatitis.

Amylases↗
PubMed1988

A simple and efficient method of measuring in vitro amylase secretion by dispersed pancreatic acini.

A method of measuring amylase secretion from dispersed pancreatic acini is described that utilizes a 20-micron nylon mesh to separate cell-associated from secreted amylase. When compared with the standard centrifugation assay, the mesh technique permits easy measurement at multiple, closely spaced time points while reducing the number of samples generated and allowing rapid manipulation of the extracellular suspending medium.

Amylases↗
PubMed1987

Role of oxygen-derived free radicals in diet-induced hemorrhagic pancreatitis in mice.

The role of oxygen-derived free radicals in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis was studied by evaluating the effects of catalase, allopurinol, and dimethylsulfoxide on diet-induced acute hemorrhagic pancreatic necrosis in mice. The mortality rate and degree of hyperamylasemia associated with this model of pancreatitis were reduced by catalase but a similar result followed the administration of heat-denatured catalase, suggesting that the apparent protective effect of catalase was not the result of reductions in free radical levels. Neither allopurinol nor dimethylsulfoxide reduced mortality or degree of hyperamylasemia. The increased pancreatic content of amylase and the necrosis that characterize this model of pancreatitis were not altered by any of the agents tested. In contrast, both allopurinol and dimethylsulfoxide reduced peripancreatic edema formation, suggesting that edema, but not the other features that characterize this model of pancreatitis, may result from generation of oxygen-derived free radicals.

Acute Disease↗